What can gender tell us about political parties? Historically, and often still, political parties have been dominated by men from majority groups, and shaped by traditional gender relations and norms that generally disadvantage women. Gender is crucial in understanding the persistence of men's political overrepresentation and the corresponding marginalization of women in politics, as well as in exploring questions of why and how parties adapt and change, and what their role is in representative democracy. Gendering Party Politics explores the relationship between gender, institutions, and political parties through a feminist institutionalist lens, advancing new theoretical, methodological, and empirical directions for party politics scholarship. The contributors synthesize two decades of research, introduce foundational concepts and frameworks, and present innovative methods and empirical cases from around the world. They also make the case as to why this research matters, evaluating the practical opportunities for and obstacles to transforming parties in more gender equitable ways. Each chapter demonstrates the wide-ranging applications of feminist institutionalism for understanding the complexities of gender dynamics within parties. Together, these contributions constitute a significant intervention into wider debates over the relationship between political parties, power, democracy, and representation. Featuring insights from an international cast of leading scholars, Gendering Party Politics is essential for anyone interested in the evolving landscape of gender and politics, political parties and institutions, and political representation.
Chapter 8 of this work is available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International open access license. This part of the work is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.
List of Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Gender, parties, and institutions Elin Bjarnegard and Meryl Kenny Part One: Concepts 2. Between party democracy and parity democracy Petra Meier, Sabine Lang, and Birgit Sauer 3. Gender and political ambition Louise Davidson-Schmich 4. The leaky pipeline of politics Zahra Runderkamp and Meryl Kenny 5. Gender, newness, and party system change Karen Beckwith 6. Political parties and roots of resistance to gender-equitable change Cecilia Josefsson Part Two: Methods and Cases 7. Preventing and handling violence in Danish political parties Karina Kosiara-Pedersen 8. Young women aspirants and gendered ageism in Nigeria's political parties Omomayowa O. Abati and Mayowa M. Adeniji 9. Collective candidate strategies and diverse representation in Brazil Malu A.C. Gatto and Kristin N. Wylie 10. Women's institutional belonging and self-making in a right-wing party in India Proma Raychaudhury 11. Quantifying gender and immigrant bias in Swedish candidate selection Michal Grahn 12. Green parties and gender equality in the European Parliament Petra Ahrens and Johanna Kantola 13. Women's parties as agents of contagion Kimberly Cowell-Meyers Part Three: Transforming Political Parties 14. From feminization to feministization through party gender action plans Tania Verge 15. Gender sensitizing political parties and the feminist academic critical actor Sarah Childs 16. Exploiting empowerment in Lebanon's sectarian political parties Carmen Geha Conclusion 17. Looking back, moving forward: editors' conversation with Joni Lovenduski and Pippa Norris Joni Lovenduski, Pippa Norris, Elin Bjarnegard, Meryl Kenny References Index
Meryl Kenny is Professor of Gender and Politics at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests bridge the intersection of gender politics, party politics, territorial politics, and institutional approaches to the study of politics. She is the author of Gender and Political Recruitment (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and articles published in the European Journal of Political Research, Politics & Gender, Political Studies, European Journal of Politics & Gender, and Government & Opposition amongst others. She is a Director of the Feminism and Institutionalism International Network (FIIN) and an editor of the Oxford University Press book series, Studies in Feminist Institutionalism. Elin Bjarnegård is Professor of Political Science at the Department of Government at Uppsala University. Her research interests are at the intersection of comparative politics and gender studies, and include masculinities, political parties, violence, corruption, and institutions. Her publications have appeared in journals such as American Political Science Review, Journal of Democracy, and Journal of Peace Research. She is the author of Gender, Informal Institutions and Political Recruitment (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and editor of Gender and Violence against Political Actors (Temple University Press, 2023). She is a Director of the Feminism and Institutionalism International Network (FIIN) and an editor of the Oxford University Press book series, Studies in Feminist Institutionalism.
